a great deal more than is gotten in company trainings and
regimental parades under our old militia system.

Discipline--discipline--discipline; these are the first, second, and
third requisites to make men into soldiers. With it the poorest
materials can be made effective. Napoleon made good soldiers of the
Italian lazaroni--and a poorer material can scarcely well be conceived.
It is Napoleon that said: 'discipline is the first requisite for a
soldier--bravery is only secondary.' Indeed the more there is of bravery
in an army composed of such men as the New England States and the rural
districts of New York send to the war--'reasoning bayonets,' as Napoleon
called them, bayonets in the hands of men with heads on their shoulders,
and heads that have the habit of doing their own thinking--the more
there is of bravery in such a soldiery, the greater the need of
discipline. Not only thorough training in the use of arms, but a habit
of implicit obedience is indispensable to make good soldiers.

There can be no doubt this war is destined to make us a more military
people than we have been before. And good reason we should be. In the
first place, because the prevalence of a higher military tone and the
maintenance of a more effective military force are indispensable for the
national security and defence. Until the millennium comes we shall
always be liable to foreign invasions or internal rebellion. In either
case there is nothing before us but to fight, and nothing but successful
fighting can save us. But how can we fight successfully if we have only
raw recruits or an ill-trained militia, and officers better skilled to
handle the yard stick than the sword, to marshal a column of figures
than a body of men? In the nest place, because the military
virtues--courage, fortitude, endurance, subordination, and obedience;
the military habits--promptitude, vigilance, order, attention to
details; and the physical developments--health, strength, and heightened
muscular activity, which come from military discipline--all these are no
less valuable as elements of the _morale_ or general character of a
nation than indispensable in a merely military view, to a nation's
security and success in arms.

To form a disciplined army was the first thing we had to do when the
rebellion broke out. It was a great pity, and a sad necessity to have to
begin to do it then. We have paid dearly for our folly and neglect. If
we had been as well prepared f